eprintid: 10020374
rev_number: 11
eprint_status: archive
userid: 587
dir: disk0/00/02/03/74
datestamp: 2014-10-31 12:51:37
lastmod: 2017-12-07 21:36:43
status_changed: 2014-10-31 12:51:37
type: thesis
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: De Souza, Denise Trento Rebello
title: Teacher professional development and the argument of incompetence : the case of in-service elementary teacher education in Sao Paulo, Brazil
ispublished: unpub
divisions: B14
note: Thesis: (PhD) University of London Institute of Education, 2001.
abstract: This work proposes that since the early eighties a specific strategy has gained increasing
importance within official Education Programmes in Sao Paulo (Brazil) addressed to deal with
the high rates of pupil repetition and dropout: the concentration on teachers professional
development. We argue that this strategy is based on the idea of teacher's incompetence as the
main explanation for educational problems. This idea pervades both the conceptions of the
programmes and their proposed actions and practices. We discuss the idea of teacher's
incompetence tracing its recent origins in the literature, and investigating its repercussions for
the formulation and implementation of official Education Programmes, namely Basic Cycle,
Basic Cycle in a Single Shift and Quality School undertaken by the Sao Paulo State Secretariat
for Education. In order to develop our argument a programme for Teacher Professional
Development (1PD) carried out in the early 90's was chosen as the empirical context. A
systematic fieldwork based on a qualitative research method was carried out in which the
perceptions, expectations, and interrelations of the involved teachers, course monitors and
policy makers were extracted from a number of interviews and observations. Our analysis
demonstrates the presence of what we identify as the "argument of incompetence". Having
provided evidence of its presence in the educational literature and in the education policies we
explore and demonstrate its presence and its significance in the perceptions of the three groups
of professionals involved in teachers' professional development programmes we analyse. We
show that the "argument of incompetence" takes on different forms according to the context. It
tends to be more refined at the level of the educational literature and rather simplistic in the
education policies. However, the core of the "argument of incompetence" follows a linear
logic: "we do not have a good quality school only because we lack teachers of professional
competence". We proceed to demonstrate that it not only undermines the relations among the
main participating agents in teacher professional development, namely, policy makers, course
monitors and teachers, but it also promotes a mistaken way of thinking about teacher
professional development. Mistaken and simplistic as it promotes a conception of TPD that
overestimates its possibilities of dealing with chronic and broader issues of low quality of
Brazilian Basic Education without taking the necessary action regarding other vital elements
such as suitable conditions of work in schools and teacher's career development.
date: 2001
date_type: completed
official_url: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.536175
oa_status: green
thesis_class: doctoral_open
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
full_text_status: public
pages: 297
institution: Institute of Education, University of London
thesis_type: Doctoral
citation:        De Souza, Denise Trento Rebello;      (2001)    Teacher professional development and the argument of incompetence : the case of in-service elementary teacher education in Sao Paulo, Brazil.                   Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.     Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10020374/1/__d6_Shared%24_SUPP_Library_User%20Services_Circulation_Inter-Library%20Loans_IOE%20ETHOS_ETHOS%20digitised%20by%20ILL_DE%20SOUZA%2C%20D.T.R.pdf